Not What it Looks Like
by MoveTowardFocus
Summary: Cop!Keith investigates a warehouse only to find criminal!Lance plotting to steal important information from an unknown source. Much to Keith's annoyance, he gets assigned to the case. It certainly doesn't help that Keith thinks the thief is more than a little handsome. The story of how a cop and a thief find themselves in each other. AU. M for possible later chapters.


Sometimes, Keith really hates his job. Keith has been a cop for three years. He's done his time doing the late-night shifts and getting senior cops their coffee. There is absolutely no reason he should be required to answer the incoming text from his chief.

 _Reported suspicious activity at warehouse on 5_ _th_ _. Check it out on your way home. Thanks. -Shiro_

He knows Shiro wouldn't ask him if another cop was available in the area. Keith sighs as he resigns himself to checking out the warehouse instead of heading home to shower and watch Netflix. Fifteen minutes later, Keith is pulling up next to the warehouse in his beat-up black Jeep.

"Not creepy at all." Keith mumbles under his breath.

It's definitely creepy and it seems like any activity here would qualify as suspicious. Keith examines the warehouse as he parks his Jeep in the back of the building behind some bushes. It's grey and overgrown. There used to be a name on the side but years of weathering has stripped the paint off so he doesn't know what the building used to be.

Keith slinks up next to the building and spots a door that's been propped open with a brick. He quietly opens the door, cringing when it squeaks a little, and lets it fall back into place behind him. He's brought into a hallway with a cement floor. Keith thinks it doesn't look like anyone has been here for ages but he makes his way silently across the hall which leads him to a large open room.

"I've told you a thousand times Lance, I can hack into it. It'll be easy."

Keith turns sharply toward the right side of the room where the voice originated from to see someone sitting in a chair in front of a laptop and a stack of papers. To their left, there's a guy who looks to be around Keith's age laid out on a couch the trespassers must have moved in. Keith quickly ducks behind a crate that was left abandoned in the warehouse and waits to see what it is he has just walked in on.

"You keep saying that but this dude is beyond rich, Pidge, he can definitely afford a top security system. I just want to be sure we'll be able to get in." The dude, Lance, pipes up, sitting up on the couch.

"Lance, I can hack into anything. Just worry about your end. You need to be able to get in, steal the information, and get back out unnoticed."

So, they're going to steal something. Keith knows he needs to make his presence known and make an arrest. He stands up to do just that but his elbow catches on the crate and a metal pipe falls off from the top onto the cement flooring, causing a huge bang to echo into the room. Keith cringes and holds his breath.

He can hear the sound of footsteps approaching and considers pulling his gun but the guy gets to him first, grabbing his upper arm and pulling him up roughly. He hauls him out from behind the crate.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" The guy asks, pulling him into their workspace.

Keith takes a second to look at what he's dealing with here. The boy is handsome, tan skin and soft looking brown hair with bright blue eyes. He has on a white shirt with a green jacket pulled over it and some old jeans. He's gorgeous.

 _Not what's important here, Keith._

Keith figures he should just be honest. He's out of uniform because he thought he was done for the day so he figures the other guy should know he's busted.

"Arresting you. You're definitely trespassing and you guys were talking about stealing something. I need to bring you in for questioning. If you hurt me, you're hurting a cop which has all kinds of charges. Not to mention you'll be at the top of every cop's hit list." Keith says.

Lance makes eye contact with his partner (a boy?) and nods once to himself. Suddenly, Lance roughly pulls him toward one of the thin metal beams in the room. Lance shoves him up next to it, shocking the breath out of Keith, and rips the handcuffs out of Keith's jacket pocket. He thought he'd been so smart coming in here with his handcuffs, just in case. It backfired on him big time. Lance clamped a cuff around Keith's wrist and the other one around the beam before stepping back.

"You really don't want to do this." Keith warns, reaching up to pull at the cuffs.

"Well, you didn't exactly leave us much of a choice, did you? You're right, if I hurt you, we'll have a bunch of cops on our ass. Plus, I'm not really the type to lean towards violence." Lance says exasperated, as if Keith is nothing but an annoyance.

"So, what? You're going to just leave me here?" Keith asks, infuriated.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm sure one of your cop friends will come get you when you haven't radioed back." He leans into Keith's face, blue eyes intense. "Trust me, you want to leave us alone."

Lance walks away from him, pulling the white hood of his jacket up and over his head. His partner, Keith remembers the name Pidge, joins him, laptop and papers in hand.

"Sweet dreams, handsome!" Keith hears Lance's voice echo from the hallway and then the sound of a rusty door closing.

Keith is both infuriated and embarrassed that this guy Lance got the jump on him. He's been a cop for three years. Sometimes, Keith really hates his job.

Just as Lance predicted, the next morning, Shiro sends a cop to come get him. The drive back to the station is a quiet one and he appreciates that the rookie cop doesn't ask any questions. Keith just eats the provided muffin and coffee, dreading having to face Shiro. Unfortunately, the drive is a short one and they're pulling into the station sooner than Keith would like.

"How did this happen, Keith? This isn't like you." Shiro asks, not unkindly but still obviously peeved.

"I don't know Shiro, it was just an off day, I guess. It won't happen again." Keith says honestly. It's not like he meant for them to get away.

"Did you get any information out of them?"

Keith sighs. "Only that they're planning to steal some kind of information. They were talking about hacking into security systems."

Shiro's quiet for a moment, thinking. Shiro plops down into his big office chair and smooths a hand over his tie.

"I'm assigning you to this case. Find out what information they're planning to steal. Find out why they want the information. It could be nothing but we should check into it." Shiro orders, much to Keith's annoyance.

Keith knows he fucked up big time last night and so he easily agrees. Fuck his life. He wanted to be a cop to bust big crimes, not some hacker and their sidekick.

"Yes, sir."

After that, Keith heads home to shower and get some much-needed sleep. He thought he'd fall asleep easily but he keeps tossing and turning. He can't get the image of those big blue eyes out of his head.

 _Sweet dreams, handsome!_

In the privacy of his own room, Keith blushes. He'll start on the case first thing in the morning.

A/N:

If you guys want to see more, please leave a comment! To Shiranai Atsune, who requested this fic, I hope this was what you were looking for.


End file.
